After the Battle
by MarkTurner
Summary: Shortly after the battle for Hogwarts, the Ministry demands a basic Health and Safety check. They weren't at all prepared for what they found.
1. Chapter 1

Note : This story is in response to an idea given by Twisted Biscuit on the fiction alley forums. I don't know how to link to it, but you should be able to find it if you look hard enough. Many thanks for letting me try it out! The characters are not mine either. Actually very little is mine except for the order of words on the page.

The story is set after the battle for Hogwarts. Not the 'real' battle - just one that could have happened.

**AFTER**

"Good evening Professor. Thank you for inviting us." The assembled team of ministry wizards and witches quickly took their places up in McGonagall's office, giving every indication that they would have forced their way in - with or without invitation.

"Really!" she huffed, trying to gain control of the situation. "I don't see any reason why this is necessary. Hogwarts has been open for nearly a thousand years and never in all that time has the ministry seen fit to demand a..." she paused as if struggling to say a particularly difficult word, "...health and safety check."

Percy Weasley stepped forward. "Before now, Hogwarts' defences had never been completely breached either. All those explosive spells going off in the corridors; the handful of giants who smashed their way inside; you-know-who himself smashing a hole in the south tower. Not to mention my brothers." A collective shudder passed between some of the officials. They remembered all too well some of the more 'interesting' inventions the twins had used against the Death Eaters. They had dedicated a whole ward in Saint Mungos to cater for some of the worse off victims.

McGonagall was not to be deterred.

"Now listen here. Just because we have a few problems in the castle that doesn't mean there needs to be a full investigation. It's nothing a few spells won't fix..."

She was interrupted by the sound of shouting outside. It sounded like a Quidditch match was going on.

"That seems awfully loud Professor," Percy's eyes were drawn to a gently swaying curtain that was draped over one of the walls, "and didn't that wall used to have portraits on it?"

He pulled back the curtain and gasped. There was a large chunk of stone missing from the wall, leaving a drop all the way down to the grass outside.

"Professor! Do you know how dangerous this is? Anyone could just slip and fall through there!"

As if to emphasise his point, another piece of stonework fell away from around the hole and crashed to the ground, landing not 6 feet away from a passing student. The near-victim was so used to parts of the castle falling apart; he just looked up and waved.

"That does it! We are starting today!" With that, the team filed out of the room, parchments in hand. As they slammed the door behind them, there was a creaking noise, followed by the door falling inwards with a crash.

McGonagall sighed. They were doomed.

-----

"In this class we should be attempting to brew the fourth most powerful sticking potion ever created, but as you know by now the entire school supplies were destroyed. When _Professor_ Hagrid returns from what is left of the Forbidden Forest hopefully he will have managed to find some replacements. Until then I want everyone to memorise the steps involved and then write down 25 different things that could go wrong and how you could be injured by it. Begin."

Percy looked down at the parchment entitled 'Potions' and put an X by 'Lesson running as expected'.

"P-p-professor," started Percy, still finding it hard not to fear the long-standing potions master, "just exactly how long do you expect it to take to replace the ingredients that were lost?"

"Lost?" Snape replied, "They are in no way lost; I know exactly where they are. Their ashes are scattered across half of the Quidditch Pitch, along with the back wall of my supply room. Some imbecile hit a weak point in the wall with a strong explosive curse and agitated some of the more reactive ingredients. The impact killed 15 people - 13 of them Death Eaters."

Snape grinned as though his supplies were personally responsible for winning the battle.

"How long Professor?" Percy sighed.

"Assuming our esteemed Grounds Keeper can even recognise the most basic of ingredients I think we should be able to start making some first year potions again in around 3 weeks. The rarest herbs may take up to a year to track down, and even then Hogwarts considers buying potion supplies a low priority."

Percy scribbled another note on his parchment.

"So after 3 weeks Potions should begin returning to normal?" Considering the damage Percy didn't think that was too bad.

"I didn't say that. At that point we will have the ingredients but there is still the matter of constructing a chemically and magically balanced place to store them. During the explosion it seems a few small flies inhaled some gillyweed vapour along with some other mixtures of things, and have now grown to ten times their size and taken up residence in the store room. As of yet we have been unable to remove them. They seem to breed just as fast as we can kill them."

He pulled back his right sleeve and showed the array of nasty looking scars and cuts along his arm.

"Occasionally," he added, "one escapes. This was from a particularly nasty one. They are becoming resistant to most magic."

Percy put another X next to 'Safe working environment'. There was a loud booming noise and the walls shook slightly.

"And are remarkably strong."

Percy added a second X.

"T-t-thank you Professor. I'll just be leaving now. I have a lot of places to visit today." With that Percy hurried out of the dungeons.

---

"FIRE!"

A dozen shouts of curses rang around greenhouse 4 and jets of coloured lights shot into the array of plants.

"Good!" Professor Sprout shouted, "Keep on firing at will. I think I see them beginning to weaken slightly. Not much longer and we will have this whole greenhouse under control again."

The class continued firing the spells into the plants, occasionally shouting or screaming as one of the more offended plants made a grab for them. Professor Sprout then noticed Percy edging his way into the greenhouse, cautiously aiming his wand at anything that was green and looked like it was moving.

"Hello there Percy, come in, come in. Don't worry we nearly have this one under control now. That side is clear at least. It's been quite a battle this one, but we should have it clear by the end of the day."

"What the hell happened here?" Percy asked, watching a small shrub - he couldn't remember the name - dodging a cutting curse.

"Well it was quite remarkable from what I understand," explained Professor Sprout, pausing occasionally to fire a curse or two to help out the students. "Apparently an evenerate curse, an engorgio charm, and a magic replenishing charm collided and then hit the middle of the mandrake patch. The mandrake that was hit then screamed, exploded the nearest Death Eater's head, stole his wand, and then began to wage war on the castle. Nevile! Duck!"

He ducked just in time to avoid a massive vine covered in thorns that swung just passed where his head was only seconds before. A few curses collided with it and it fell to the floor.

"Now where was I?" she continued. "Oh yes. It started animating other plants around it, and took over all of greenhouses 1 through 6. As you know greenhouse 7 was completely burned down as part of the defensive plan."

Percy nodded.

"Luckily the originally affected mandrake seems to be the only one who can actually cast any magic, but he has holed himself up in greenhouse 1. We have some lookouts outside to see if we can hit him with a spell or two but he seems too smart for that."

"What about normal lessons? And the damage that is being done to the rest of the plants?"

"There is nothing we can do about that. We simply must win the battle and regain all the greenhouses. The mandrake, or the General as we like to call him, took a first year prisoner yesterday. We can only hope to reach him in time. After that we can start regrowing things. I don't think we will fully be able to start lessons again until next year. It will take that long to get the plants growing again at least."

Percy put a complete set of Xs on his parchment.

"On the bright side though," Professor Sprout added, "We lured a troll in there yesterday too. 2 hours later its head shot out. It seems they hate trolls nearly as much as we do, and are getting quite ruthless."

Percy paled, and fled back to the relative safety of castle.

-----

A/N : Coming next time. Percy explores more of the castle - and begins talking to some of the students we all know so well.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N : Percy continues around the school. What else will he find there?

Part 2 

"Careful! Steady!"

"Fred? What _are_ you doing?"

Fred held tightly onto the rope and looked over his shoulder. "Percy, brother, what are you doing here?"

The rope slipped slightly through his fingers and the sound of panic could be heard two floors below. Percy leaned over the railings on the fifth floor stairwell to see Colin seated in a wheelchair and suspended on the other end of the rope. The twins were currently pulling him up with the help of Harry and under the watchful eye of Hermione. The whole setup looked very unsafe.

"Never mind that," Percy replied, "why are you pulling Colin up here with a rope? Can't you just use a simple spell?"

Percy pulled out his wand but had it batted away quickly by Ron.

"Don't be a prat Percy. Don't you think we would have done that? You have the twins to thank for this."

"I don't think we're to blame at all for this, do you George?"

"Not at all," his twin replied, "we can't be held responsible if a large amount of magic repelling powder..."

"...also known as Anti-Magic..."

"...got loose in the stairwell..."

"...and you know what happens when magic meets anti-magic..."

"...how do you think Colin lost his leg?"

As Colin was now nearing the same level as the rest of them, he waved as he heard his name.

"Took out at least twenty Death Eaters too!" he announced, grinning proudly.

"So there is strictly no magic in this whole area now until the effects wear off. Even the moving staircases have been disabled. We're still hoping to find another way through to the third floor east wing, but so far we haven't had any luck."

"So how long till the effects wear off?" asked Percy making notes on his parchment.

"Well we aren't completely sure," answered one of the twins.

"...but going on the amount of powder used..."

"...and the usual time it takes the doses to wear off..."

"...and then just to be safe..."

"...probably about a year."

"Or two."

"After Neville forgot about it and brought his remembrall in his school bag through here by mistake, I doubt anyone will forget again. You see, he forgot to leave it behind, and the magic of it activating caused a reaction and exploded the entire contents of his bag. I've never seen him run so fast!"

Being unsure if he was carrying anything magical, Percy turned around and hurried out of that particular stairwell.

---

Professor Trelawney sighed. "Hello again Percy, just take a seat over there please like last time."

"Last time...?"

"Just watch and I'll explain."

Percy took a seat to one side of the classroom and waited to see what was going on. With everything that had happened today he wasn't feeling too optimistic. He was just getting comfortable when someone else climbed up into the classroom, and he found himself looking at... himself...?

"Whaa..?" he started.

"Watch," Trelawney motioned towards the other person that looked like him.

The other person walked up to the professor, and their mouth moved, but no sound came out. They then walked over to where he was sitting, and just when Percy thought he was going to be sat on, his double disappeared into nothing.

"This," explained Trelawney, "has been happening ever since I moved back into the tower. For some reason anyone who walks over that point in the floor just there," she gestured to a point on the floor but Percy couldn't see exactly where, "gets muddled up in time. I haven't noticed any side effects, except copies of the person keep turn up from time to time."

"So that's why you said that I had been here before?"

"Yes, copies of you have been turning up all day. I'm glad I've finally seen the real one. You know, I've always wanted to be able to see the future better and better, but now I can actually see the conversations I am going to have even before the people get here, I am beginning to wish I couldn't."

"I notice you're not holding any classes here at the moment."

"I was hoping that these effects would have worn off by now and I was going to try a class tomorrow. That's out of the question now. You could probably imagine what sort of things your brothers would do if they ever found out about this. I'd never get any rest!"

"So you have no idea how long it will take to get classes back to normal?" Percy asked while watching another version of himself make its way across the room. It was very strange to watch yourself walking.

"None at all. I couldn't even begin to say what it was that caused this to happen. This tower was one of the furthest points away from the fighting. The event might not have even happened yet! I'm just hoping whatever it is sorts itself out soon."

Percy marked another cross down on his parchment and got up to leave.

"Thanks for your time Professor, I hope everything goes back to normal soon." He made to walk over to the door.

"No problem. Watch out for the..."

But it was too late. Completely oblivious, Percy walked right through the effected area and left the classroom.

Professor Trelawney sighed again. She knew it was going to happen, but it didn't hurt to try and stop it.

---

A/N : Next time, will the school pass or fail? There aren't many more places left to visit and it isn't looking good. I'll take any suggestions for places to go too.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Had some free time on my hands so this is the result. I'm a little rusty.

Part 3

Fail. Fail. Fail...

Percy looked down at his check-list. There weren't many more places left for him to check and it would take nothing short of a miracle to save the school now. If he was to be completely honest he was quite looking forward to going down in history as the person who closed down Hogwarts. He took two turns to the left, and then one to the right and ended up outside the transfiguration classroom. Pinned up on the door was a notice.

"Class moved down the hall to Room 7 due to slight structural damage."

Not wanting to miss another opportunity to add a reason to close the school, Percy pushed open the door and made to take a step inside. The door swung open and revealed... nothing. No floor, no walls, no ceiling. It was as if the entire classroom had fallen into the room below, leaving nothing but open air and a ten foot drop down to the rubble below. He quickly took a few steps back away from the edge, leaving the door swinging in the open air.

He turned around and moved down to the end of the corridor, where the lesson had been changed to, and went inside.

McGonagall was standing at the front of the room teaching a class of third years about identifying transfigured objects and for the first time that day Percy could not see anything wrong. The class were all listening, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He leant against the back wall to listen to what was going on.

"And so as you can see, just a simple identify spell will show up as blue if the object in question has not undergone any advanced... oink."

Without any warning McGonagall disappeared and was replaced by a tartan coloured pig. The third year who was sitting closest to the front just casually waved his wand and the pig was replaced by McGonagall.

"... advanced transfiguration," she continued. "Green will indicate that something has been done that will require more detailed identification, and of course as we already know the red colour..."

This time there was a splat from the side of the room and one of the pupils turned into a goldfish. McGonagall just continued talking and at the same time waved her wand to restore him.

"... will mean that what you see is not the least energy state and so is most likely an indicator that the object in question should be of a dramatically different size."

"Excuse me Professor," Percy interrupted, moving towards the front of the classroom, "but what on Earth is going on in here. I was watching very carefully and nobody is performing any of those transfiguration spells. That should be impossible!"

McGonagall sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"I haven't been able to find anyone who knows what spellwork went on in this room during the battle. All we could find were a pile of death-eater masks and a couple of rather large spiders. It didn't take long to get those... removed. It doesn't seem to be dangerous in any way so we have decided to use this while my room is being repaired."

"Repaired? There was nothing there! What is left of it is now inside a charms classroom!"

"A few quick spells and it will be as good as new. That won't be a problem."

Percy scribbled something on his parchment.

"I suppose you don't have any idea how long these unusual effects will last?"

"Well Ragthal's theory of magical energy conservation..."

"You don't need to quote Ragthal's Laws Professor," Percy interrupted, "but assuming you don't know exactly what spells were used in the first place you could only be sure that the effects will drop by a third, in a third of the time to the next lunar eclipse. That's not really very useful..."

SQUARK.

"Percy," said McGonagall, "just sort James out back there would you? A simple _finite_ will do fine. He seems to have turned into a goose."

After righting the afflicted student, and not wanting to be turned into a really awkward animal, Percy ran.

* * *

Dinner had already started in the Great Hall by the time Percy had arrived. He stumbled down onto the first empty seat on the Gryffindor table and nursed the cut on his face. Everyone forgot to tell him of the one specific corridor that the suits of armour had decided to attack anyone who walked down it. It was only then that he noticed the oddities of what were around him.

Usually at meal times the food was piled all over the tables and people could grab as much as they wanted until eating time was over and the food disappeared. This time however there was almost no food at all. He focused on a bowl of carrots just in front of him, and no sooner had he looked at it, it vanished.

"Hey," Dean shouted at him. "I was going to get some of those."

"Percy," offered Neville, "the trick is to not make eye contact. If you think you can see something you want, go for it and hope for the best. It is easier to put something back than to catch something. Isn't that right Ron?"

Ron was waiting with his hand held over the table. "Hermoine?" he asked.

"Five seconds Ron, and just a bit to your left."

Ron moved his hand just a little bit to the left and counted down from five. When he reached zero, he made a grab at the air and just as his hand closed, a giant bowl of roast potatoes appeared.

"Jackpot! Hermione you're fantastic! See that Percy. Hermione is the only person in here who has it all figured out."

"Really Ron," Hermione spoke up, her plate piled with all the food she wanted, "it is just a simple pattern based on the expansion of the Fibonacci series. My guess is that whatever happened in here involved a tri-location spell. The ceiling must have acted as an amplifier. It is the only thing in here with enough energy to do that."

Ron just looked blank. "Whatever you say Hermione. Just when exactly is the gravy going to appear?"

"Not for just over six minutes I'm afraid. You just missed it."

Percy spotted a bowl of trifle in front of him, but he was far too slow to grab it. Dean chuckled.

"Good luck with that one. Only Hermione has had trifle in days. The most difficult of the lot to catch that one."

After a few more minutes of grasping at air and nobody sharing anything with him, Percy left the table to find some food that didn't move about.

* * *

It was late evening when Percy met up with the Minister of Magic and Professor McGonagall in her office to discuss the results of the inspection. Percy handed his papers over to his boss, and started to explain.

"Minister, Hogwarts has failed on every account! I didn't see one classroom or corridor all day that could be considered safe, and I seriously doubt that anyone will be learning anything..."

"Weatherby listen," the Minister interrupted. "why do you think I ordered this inspection?"

"It's Weasley sir. I guess because you care about the safety of the school and the well-being..."

The Minister snorted. "We have just won a fantastic victory on the very grounds of Hogwarts! People from all over the world will be wanting to send their children here. I wanted an inspection so that we could publish something in the paper about what a fantastic school this is."

"But sir, it is unsafe!"

"Minor details," he waved his hand around aimlessly, "the Daily Prophet can spin an article whichever way we want it to go. I'll just tell them to write what a wonderful place this is, and whatever unfortunate effects are left over from the conflict will be sorted out very soon."

Percy's eye twitched.

"So," Percy asked, "there was no point in me making this review at all?"

"Not really no," the Minister smiled.

For a second it looked as though Percy was going to lunge for the Minister, but instead he settled for storming out of the room. He would have slammed the door, but it had not been fixed from last time.

As soon as Percy had reached the bottom of the staircase, McGonagall turned to the Minister.

"Thank you Tonks, that was most appreciated."

The Minister's hair gradually changed to pink, and his face changed shortly afterwards until it was now Tonks that was standing there. With a quick flick of her wand, her clothes transfigured from the Minister's and back into her own.

"Don't worry about it Professor. He certainly didn't look too pleased."

McGonagall shook her head. "He really needs to relax a little. I'll just get these papers changed and sent off to the Minister. Nobody can close down Hogwarts!"

* * *

A/N: Thanks to those people who gave me ideas for what to do this chapter. There is a possibility that I will write something else like this in the future because randomly writing about chaos was a lot of fun! Thanks for reading!

(Now review or The General will eat you)


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